Bible, by the way, let us know. We will happily get you one. So just feel free to let let someone in our church here know. We'll happily get you a Bible if you don't own one. But we're going to be in Nehemiah chapter 8 this morning. As you're turning there, I was reading a story that a man named Robert L. Sumner wrote about in his book many years ago. He wrote the book, the story, a true story about a man in Kansas City who had severely got severely injured in an explosion that took place.
It had badly disfigured him. He lost all of his eyesight. He lost both of his hands. It was a very difficult time for him. He was a brand new Christian when this happened. And one of the great disappointments that he was preparing to live with was the fact that he would never be able to read the Bible again. And so he was grieving this and upon read hearing a story he he had an idea. He heard a story about a a lady in England who had read the Braille Bible with her lips.
And it gave him idea. May maybe I could read the Bible with my lips. And see, he ordered the Bible in braille and it came and he placed it to his lips. And it was only then that he found out that the explosion had actually destroyed all the nerve endings in his lips as well. So he couldn't feel anything. And so now he was grieving yet again. And but he thought every day he kept trying. He thought maybe one day may maybe the the nerve endings will heal and I'll be able to to feel something. And so every day he would put the Braille Bible to his lips to no avail.
Until one day when he put it to his lips, his tongue happened to touch some of the Braille characters and his tongue could feel. And he thought to himself, I could read the Bible with my tongue. And so he learned Braille with his tongue. And at the time of the writing, when Robert L. Summer had written his book. That man had read the Bible cover to cover with his tongue four times already. Why? Because he was desperate. He had a hunger to know what the Bible taught. Who is this God?
What is his character? What is he all about? I want to know him. And so desperate was he that he used any means possible to read the word of God about the re the true the only true God of the world. Well, we live in an interesting time, don't we? We live in a time over the last few weeks where there are literally millions of people worldwide who previously had no interest in the Bible that now have an insatiable appetite to know what it says, to know who this God was that Charlie Kirk followed, willing to give his life for it. Who is this God?
And we see in the text that we're going to read today in Nehemiah 8, a desire, a longing, an appetite amongst the people to hear the word of the Lord. And so we're going to examine that this morning. Nehemiah 8, I'm going to read for you the first eight verses and then we'll dig into this and look at what this says. Nehemiah 8, starting at verse one. And all the people gathered together as one man into the square before the Watergate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.
So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Watergate from early morning until midday in the presence of the men and women and those who could understand. And all and and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Matathiiah, Sheima, Annayiah, Uriah, Hilkaya, and Measiah on his right hand, and Padiah, Michelle, Melcha, Hasham, Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Mishulam on his left hand.
And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. As he opened it, all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, "Amen. Amen." Lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Yeshua, Bani, Sherbabiah, Jaman, Ankub, Shebathi, Hodiah, Measiah, Kalita, Azariah, Jose, Hanan, Pallayia, the Levites helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places.
They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so the people understood the reading. Lest you marvel too much at my reading of those names, let it be known unto you that I have no idea how those are pronounced. I'm doing my level best. But I think I got close. The I'll just say this, the mashulum here, if you've been with us through the series, the mashulum listed there in verse four, we're not told whether that's the mashulum from earlier chapters.
I would have think it's not actually because there some of these names were, you know, multiple people had the same name. But doesn't matter. We're not told who this mushulum is. He's just there. So, in case you were curious about that, but let's look at this text. One of the things we learn about as we as we examine the wonderful law of God is this that it requires attentiveness. As we we we get into this here, we read that they're gathered as one man. That is to say, they're gathered corporately in front of the Watergate before the Watergate. This is great news.
They have a gate. Pastor Bryce mentioned last week, mission accomplished, right? They've done the work. The just back in chapter six, they were facing all kinds of opposition from finishing that gate. But now it's done. All the gates are in place. They now have a finished wall. They have a finished temple, a place to worship. It is now a time for the people of God in safety now that the wall is done and the gates are up to worship the Lord. Now imagine if you will with me a bloke walking by happening upon the scene without any background context.
He looks through the gate and he sees these people gathered together. One can only assume with a measure of joy in their hearts because the wall is done, the gates are up, the temple's built and and if he if he had no context, he would say, "Boy, that's a real privileged people in there. To which I would say yes and hard yes. What do I mean by that? Yes, they are privileged of God. The Jewish people were privileged to have been given all of the wonderful mysteries of God and the truths about God's character.
You know, Paul spoke about this in Romans chapter 9 when he was just crying out before God about his own people who didn't know the Messiah, who didn't understand who Jesus was. And he says this about them in chapter 9:4 of Romans. He says this, "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises." The Jews had all of these things at their disposal. They are privileged.
And yet here I would also say hard. Yes, these they're a privileged people in that the wall is built. They're it's fortified. They have a temple there. But it came at great cost. If you've been with us through Ezra and Nehemiah through this series as we've examined this through the scriptures, they had opposition upon opposition, trial upon trial. Those who were seeking to stop the work of the Lord by all means necessary often through deceit and cunning and lying, God protected them. He sustained them.
He granted them wisdom against those schemes that were coming against them. And reminds me of what we actually read in Ephesians chapter 6. For there we read these things. Ephesians 6, I'm going to pick it up in verse 10. I can't actually turn my page. There we go. Come on, page. There we go. Ephesians 6:10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. By the way, not note that if you struggle, we're all going to struggle at times with people in life, right? Especially believers. Believers are going to struggle with believers. I don't know if you know this. If you're in if you have a natural family, I'm sure all of you young parents that have that have kids, your kids never fight with each other, right? They never struggle with each other. Siblings are going to fight. The same so is true in the the family of God. Brothers and sisters are going to fight. But your battle is not against them. Your battle is not against flesh and blood.
It is against the rulers and the authorities and the cosmic powers of this present darkness. Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. That's your enemy, not that person standing in front of you. Therefore, it says, take up the whole armor of God that you may able to withstand the evil withstand, pardon me, in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. So, the Lord has done that for them. He's enabled them to stand firm against the enemy's cunning schemes. And now the work has been done. The wall is up.
And what is the response of the people? Okay, the the work's been done. Remember, they've most of them have been involved in building. Even those who weren't builders by trade, they were all given sections of the wall to build. Hard work. So, the work's done. Now, now what? Well, let's eat, drink, and be merry. Is that their response? Is it, "Wow, now now the work is done. So, I'm just going to live with unrestrained disobedience because we live we we've done the work and now we're going to do what we want to do.
No, they they the people long for the word of God to be read. Their response is, "Let's hear from God." Look at what it says in verse one. And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Watergate, and they told Ezra the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, the Lord had commanded Israel. It wasn't Nehemiah, the governor, saying, "Hey, let's let's read the word to the people."
It wasn't Ezra who said as as really acting as a priest of sorts. It wasn't even Ezra who said, "Let's read the word to the people." It's the people who said it. We want to hear the word of God. We want to hear the book of the law. And so they are hungry for it. Now we read here that they bring they read the book of the law of Moses. So what is that? Well, it's e it's one of two things. Either it's the pentetuk. If you that's a big fancy term. If you've never heard that, let me explain it.
First five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The book of the law of Moses, the books that we understand Moses to have written. So that's often referred to as the law of God. Or it could be Deuteronomy specifically. Deuteronomy, if you go to chapter 28, there's a few verses in chapter 28 there that tell Deuteronomy describes itself as the book of the law of God. In fact, the word Deuteronomy literally means second law. In other words, the second giving of the law.
If you read Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, what the law is given, and then you read Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy is a rehashing of the law. So, it's one of the two. It's either the Pentatuk as a whole, those first five books, or it's just Deuteronomy. Either way, we read that they read it and bring a a sense of understanding of what it is they're reading from morning until midday. That's approximately 6 to 7 hours. And notice that they're standing the entire time they stood.
Isn't that something? I don't know how you are. When we're done the service here, I So I stand this this time and then I'm going to lead singing. I'll be standing and then I'm going to go shake hands at the back. I will have stood probably by the time I the the next time I sit down will have been after about an hour. And by the time I'm I sit down, my back can barely move. I'm so sore. I haven't done anything. I'm just standing. They're standing for six or seven hours to hear the word of God. Isn't that something?
I should have I was planning to and I forgot. Actually, I told I told my small group I would do this and I forgot. I was going to have you all stand as I read the text this morning. Next week, we'll do that next week. But here they are and the the law of God is brought to them and they're reading it for six or seven hours and notice what we read. All the ears pardon me the ears of all the people verse three were attentive to the book of the law. I have tried to read as many translations as possible leading up to today.
And unless I missed one, I think most of the reputable translations, if not all of them, use that same word, either attentive or gave attention to one, but the same root word there, attentive. That's the Hebrew rendering. It really does mean that to be attentive means to be mindful, to listen with intention. And that's not merely just to understand etherealally. It is to understand and apply. And so here they are attentive to the word of God.
And of course friends, this is encouraged throughout the scriptures that we would understand the word of God, the book of the law of God, the word of God as a whole, and understand it and apply it. It is good for us to be attentive. They were not sitting there twiddling their thumbs while Ezra read the book of the law. When is he going to be done? No, they were attentive. Every pastor in North America can tell who's attentive and who's not. Just is what it is. It's a good thing to be attentive.
Go with me. If you don't have to go there, if you don't have a if you're not sure where all these books are when I get you to turn to passages, you don't have to go there. You can stay in Nehemiah and maybe write these passages down. You can look at them later. But I'm going to go with you for a moment to Proverbs 4. In Proverbs 4, listen to what we read in verses 20 to 23. Proverbs 4, starting at verse 20. My son, be attentive to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight. Keep them within your heart, for they are life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all viligent vigilance. For from it flow the springs of life. How do you keep your heart? By being attentive to the word of God. That's how you keep your heart. Guard your heart that you're attentive to the word of God. Your heart is the wellspring from which all of your life flows.
And how do you make sure that that heart is leading you in the right direction that it's attentive to the word of God? Go with me if you will also then to Jeremiah 26 if you are so inclined. Jeremiah 26 2 and 3. This is more of a warning shot here. Thus says the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord. All the words that I command you to speak to them, do not hold back a word.
It may be they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to do to them because of their evil deeds. They need to listen to the words of God lest they go down a course and a path that leads to the judgment of God. And so there's an attentiveness that's needed. If we are not attentive with intention hearing and heeding the word of God, we will drift into a life that displeases the Lord and dishonors the Lord and reveals a heart that does not love God.
The heart that does not obey God does not love God. If you have a hard time with that, these are not actually my words. These are the words of Jesus. John 14:15, what did Jesus say? If you love me, you will obey me. Some would say, "Wow, that was just written to the disciples in the upper room." Well, you start parsing out the Bible like that. Well, that was just written to this group, or that was just written to that group. Suddenly you can pick and choose what parts of the Bible you want to believe or not believe. No. No.
This was written for all of our understanding. If you love the Lord Jesus, you will obey the Lord Jesus. And how do we learn to love the Lord Jesus? By being attentive to the word of God. Here we learn who he is. It's here we learn about his character and his nature, about his saving work, about who we are before him. It's important that we live in light of the word of God that we would be as attentive to the word as these people were willing if need be to stand for six hours. It's fascinating.
I've preached here typically my my average sermon here. You probably think it's longer than this because of how it feels, but it's typically 45ish minutes. Thereabouts, sometimes up to an hour. And that I know that is my window. If I go longer than that, the lights are on, but nobody's home. You're doing your taxes in your head. You're you're not even here, right? But it's fascinating. I've preached in third world countries.
They would hear me preach for five hours, not because I'm a great preacher at all, because they want to hear what God has to say through his word. We struggle with a 45minute sermon. They're hungry for as many hours as they can get. And that's what we have here. Attentive for as long as is necessary to hear the book of the law of God. And when we know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, the law of God, the commandments of God are no longer a burden for us.
In fact, it's a joy for us because it's an expression of our thanksgiving to God. Remember, we don't earn salvation. When we when we talk about obeying God, it's not to earn salvation. You can't earn it. I can't by my works make myself acceptable to God. Can't be done because I am a sinner. Everyone in this room, I hate to burst your bubble. We're all sinful. All of us have sinned by nature and by choice. All of us. And so God in his mercy sent his one and only son Jesus to pay the penalty for my sin and for yours.
That if we repent, that is to say, turn from your life devoted to sin and turn to Christ and live for his righteousness and believe upon him as saving Lord, we are saved. And in response to that, we obey. It's a way to say thank you to the Lord. So, one of my daughters who shall remain nameless who has had to work this morning, a few years ago for her birthday, and you can tell the time frame by what I'm about to say, we got her a Matthew Kachchuck Flames jersey that she had been hankering for.
The for those of you who are sports nuts, it was the Blasty, you know, the old, you know, with the black one and with We got her this jersey and she had been hankering for it that day. I have never seen her so lit up. I think if it was minus 40 with blinding snow and we said, "Can you go shovel the driveway?" She would have been like, "Yep." Because she was so thankful that we had got her this that she would have done anything for us that day in response. God saved you from hell by sacrificing his only son in your place.
Why would we not say thank you Lord let me obey you? How can I obey you as an expression of our thanksgiving? First John chapter 5, listen to what we read here in verses two and three. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. They're not burdensome for the one who's saved. It's a joy for us to respond that way.
Psalm 119, we read that the the word of God is a lamp to my feet. It shows me the way of how to live and for his glories. So, brothers and sisters, let us let's be attentive to the word of God. But the text doesn't end there. We go back to Nehemiah 8. The text here tells us that the the wonderful law of God leads to proper right worship. So a platform is brought for Ezra to stand upon. It's funny how many times those who are opposed to structured church, organized church, say why is there one man standing on a platform?
Does he think he's better than everyone? No, you got to hear the preacher. How do you hear the guy if he's standing at the same level? He's got to rise above so that people could hear him over the fray. People hear both audibly and visually. Did you know that? That's why CO was such an awful time with the masks on. I was going to the hospital doing services at the long-term care facility with a mask on. They couldn't understand me because they couldn't see my lips because hearing part of hearing is seeing the lips.
So he stands on this wooden platform that he might be heard and seen so that they could hear the not it's not about Ezra. It's about hearing God. It's about hearing his word. And so he stands there with his leading men on either side of him on his right and on his left. We read here and it says here that he blesses the Lord. How do we bless God? Like I understand how God blesses me, but how do I bless the Lord? We're told to bless God a lot in the scriptures.
Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me. We bless the Lord when we exalt him. When we praise him with integrity of heart, we make much of him. When we were singing, that's part of how we bless God if it's coming from a right, sincere heart. And so he blesses the Lord. We read here, "And all the people answered," amen. Amen. That's a Christian word, isn't it? Amen.
Well, what does that mean? Amen literally means it is so. It is true. This is verifiably true. What you have stated is true. So, he blesses the Lord. We're not told what that blessing was, but he praises the Lord in some capacity. And the people say, "What you said is true." Amen. Amen. They give a double witness. It's not just amen. It's amen. Amen. To say yes, verifiably what you've said is the truth of the matter. And then we read much to the chagrin of all the conservative Menanites here like myself that they lifted up their hands.
I was telling our small group, this is my normal posture. When I sing, I do this. That's me lifting my hands. I I am not I just it's I just just a cultural thing. We just so so conservative. And yet we read here, not just here. I took our small group. We went through all kinds of verses that show the lifting of hands. It is a good thing when it's from a sincere heart. A lot of times the lifting of hands can be an emotional thing.
Now emotions are good. Don't don't don't ever be fooled into the thing that emotions are bad. Don't let anyone tell you that affections are given to us by God. What I would say to you is your affections your emotions need to be anchored in truth. If the truth leads your affections and in so doing, you lift your hands before the Lord to say, "God, I know I am a needy sinner and you have saved me. I am so desperate for you. I need you." And praise God for that.
The truth has informed your heart and your heart is responding based on that truth. Praise God for that. That's a good thing. There's a lady in Stockholm, Sweden, who was rushing to catch a street car, but she tripped and fell and she got pinned underneath a car and she was there for a long time. The police couldn't get her out, so they called for a crane to come and and try to lift the car off of her, but they had to wait a while for the crane to get there. And so there she is. People are gathering around apparently and a man saw the situation.
He worked his way through the crowd and he crawled down under the car and he reached out and he said, "Ma'am, hold grab hold of my hand." And so she did so. She grabbed his hand and it prevented her from going into shock. She said later, the warmth of the hand, the the knowledge that someone was there with her. And later on she said, "I never thought an outstretched hand could mean so much." The woman in need reached out her hand to someone who helped her.
We have the God of the universe to whom we stretch out our hands to to say, "God, thank you. I'm in need of you." And that's what they were doing here. They lifted up their hands, it says, and then they did the opposite posture. So, first there was an upward gesture. Now there's a downward gesture. They lift their hands and then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. This is a posture of humility. Who am I before the God of the universe?
And so they bow in this humble process of saying, "God, I I'm I'm honored to be in your presence, the King of Kings." Genesis chapter 24, we see in verse 48 this same truth. Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord. We see that same thing in Exodus 4:30. You can just listen to these.
I'm going to flip through a few here. Exodus 4 31. And the people believed and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and they worshiped. We see that in 2 Chronicles 20 in that amazing account there of how God spared the people in the valley that they bowed before him. They fell before him in worship. It's a acknowledgement of humility. This is right worship. They're reading the word of the Lord here in Nehemiah.
And as as the word of God is being read to them, they are lifting their heads and they're bowing their lifting their hands for me and bowing their heads before him. True worship, right? Worship. There's no lights. There's no smoke show. There's no glitz. There's no glamour. There's nothing fancy here. It's the word of God being read. Praise is rising and a humble acknowledgement of who God is in worship is happening there. This is what the word of God should do to us.
It should produce in us a heart of worship. Now, a lot of the people around the world right now are coming to the Bible that are that have come since Charlie Kirk's assassination are coming to the word of God perhaps perhaps for some different means. There might be some who are coming to the word of God to inform themselves to be more educated on what the Bible says and that's good. It's a good thing to do that. Some are coming to to learn about its history.
I I'm I'm fascinated by by history and so they're reading it in a historical manner. There's there's merit to that. There's value to that. Some are coming to it to understand how the greats that have gone before us understood the Bible and how it informed the way they lived. They want to understand these things philosophically. And there's a place for that. But I will say this, if that's all you do with the Bible, if that's the only thing that it produces in you is interest intrigue and it doesn't lead to worship, you're missing the whole point.
The Bible is meant to do two things. It's meant to break down and build up. What do I mean by that? Well, when you go to the Bible and you read it, you begin to see yourself for who you are. The book of James talks about a mirror being held up. The Bible's like a mirror being held up to your soul. It reveals who you are. And friends, who you are, who I am, ain't so great. There's a faulty notion out there that mankind is born inherently good. That is wrong. We are not.
The Bible makes that clear. Jeremiah's 17:9 says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In fact, earlier in Romans 3, it says, "There is no one good, no one who seeks after God." This is who we are. And when we read the Bible, we see ourselves. We see our folly. We see our sin. And we recognize, "Oh, no."
And it it it humbles us. But praise be to God, the Bible doesn't only do that. It then gives us the good news and it builds us up. Not not when I say builds us up. It builds us up in the sense that we now know where we can turn. So we can have hope. See, I'm a sinner as the Bible has made clear. There's nothing good in me as the Bible's made clear. I have no hope of salvation based on my works because Isaiah 64 tells me that my works are like filthy rags before God.
So because of my sinfulness, I can't make it to God. But God has made a way. Romans 5 says, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us so that as Romans 5 carries on, we who were enemies of God are now reconciled to him through the blood and work of Christ. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved when they repent and turn."
That's what Romans 10 tells us. That's what Romans 6 tells us. That's what Romans, just read Romans. It'll tell you this. The word of God then informs me that there is a way to be saved. Only one way, though. There's not many ways to be saved. You can't go by many paths. No, there's one road. It's narrow. It's rocky. It's bumpy. It's a turkey trail. But it's the road to salvation. It's through the shed blood of Jesus because I'm a sinner and God is so just that he will never let sweep sin under the carpet. God cannot do that.
We read all through the scriptures about the holiness of God. And so because of his holiness, sin had to be dealt with. And so what does God do? He sends someone to atone for us that we would be at one with God. Not because of our work but because of the work of another in our place Jesus Christ. So that then we come to 2 Corinthians 5:21 in that glorious text that says that he Jesus who knew no sin who was not a sinner he was perfect in every way still is by the way he became sin that is to say God placed my sin Matt Martin's sin was placed on Jesus and he he took my wrath the wrath that I deserve to have he bore it he he took it upon himself self and he died in my place so that then I might become or I might receive the righteousness of Christ.
The only entrance into heaven is the righteousness of Christ to be clothed in it. And through Christ that is available to the repentant sinner who turns to Christ by faith. This is all revealed in the scriptures. It's all here. And so it it breaks down any faulty notion that I could be saved by myself. And it builds us up in the knowledge that there is one way to be saved. It's through Christ and that's available. Friends, the word of God should lead to worship.
When we understand these things, it should make us go, "Thank you, God. Oh, how how I how can I serve you? I want to just lift up your name. I want to bless your name. And not just with my lips, but with my life, every facet of who I am. I don't know if you heard it there when Becky was reading from Psalm 19. I'll take you back just a couple of the verses that she read there from Psalm 19. Picking it up in verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandments, the commandment, pardon me, of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. And so forth it goes. This is the law, the perfect law of God and the good that it is for our soul. In Hebrews 4, I'll give you one more text before we move on to one last point. In Hebrews chapter 4, listen to what we read here.
In verses 12 and 13. For the word of God is living. It is active. It is. It's this is not a dry textbook. If you've ever gone to high school, you know what a dry textbook is. If you've gone to university, you for sure know what a dry textbook is. This book has been around for thousands of years and it continues to open blind eyes to truth.
It continues to reveal God to the masses to this day. Why? Because it's living. It's active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. Piercing to the division of soul and of spirit of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. It's a mirror to the soul and it leads us to right worship when understood rightly. Now, one more thing I want to just point out from the text.
The wonderful law of God is meant to be read and understood. Notice here as we go to verse 7 that these various people that are listed here including the Levites, we read that that they helped the people to understand the law. And then we read in verse 8 that they read from the book from the law of God clearly and they gave the sense that is to say the meaning so that the people could understand the reading.
Just want to pause here as a little aside. This is why in our church here, we are happy to have ladies read scripture just like Becky did this morning because it seems here that there's a distinction made between reading the law and teaching the law. There was the reading of it and then there was those who gave the sense of it, the meaning of it, the teaching of it. We read in the word of God that men are designed by God to lead in the church and in the home and to be the preachers and teachers of the word of God and to be the elders of the local church.
And yet here we have the distinction made between the reading of the law and the and the the preaching and teaching if you want to call it that the the the giving the sense of the meaning. And so we here happily have ladies involved in many ways in our church including the reading of the text. But anyways, as we come back to this now, God in his kindness not only gives us the word to be read, he gives us the word to be understood. God in has given the word of God with perspu.
There's your Bible word or it's not even a Bible word. It's your theology word for the day. Perspectuity. If you go, what is that word? If you want to impress friends at the dinner table, perspecuity means clarity. The Bible is clear in all that it means to convey and everything that God intends to communicate, it is clear. So clear that a four-year-old child who has a Bible written in a in a language that they understand, a four-year-old child can read the word of God and understand its meaning.
And simultaneously, theologians can mine the depth of it for decades and never plummets depths. Isn't that amazing? This is the word of God, but it is meant to be read and understood. The reading is important, but it's not sufficient. We need to understand what we're reading. Imagine reading a medical textbook. If I if I came here today and I read a medical textbook and I read it and I'm going to assume everything in there is true.
Maybe that's a maybe that's a big assumption, but I'm going to assum assume everything in there is true and I'm reading this medical textbook. I'm not going to make heads or tails of what I'm reading. But then a doctor comes alongside me or someone of that nature and they say, "Oh, here's what this means." And now I read it again and I go, "Ah, I now know what that means. That makes sense to me now." In a much greater way, we are those who need to read and understand the word of God. So how is it that the word of God is made understandable to us?
Two things primarily that God has brought to us. One is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to understand what we're reading. Go with me if you will if you have a Bible and you want to turn with me to the book of John. The book of John, chapter 14. Here's what we read in verses 25 and 26. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you.
The Holy Spirit is going to is take is going to take the words of Christ and make it known to you, speak that to you. If any of you who were maybe a one time as an adult unsaved and then as an adult you came to faith in Christ and now you start reading but prior to that the Bible you would have read the Bible and gone I can't make heads or tails of this and then you come to faith in Christ because the Bible says in Romans 8 that the person who is saved is indwelled by the Holy Spirit. So now I'm indwelled by the Holy Spirit and now I read the Bible and all of a sudden you're like I read that before and I didn't understand that but this makes more sense to me now. Yeah.
Because the Holy Spirit is clarifying things for you. It's a great gift of God. John 16 13 and 14 says this, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you." The Holy Spirit makes known the word of God, the truth of God, who Christ is to us. So, praise be to God for that.
And then the second means that God has seemingly given for our edification that we might understand the word of God is elders, pastors, teachers, preachers, elders in a local church who will teach the word of God to us. Some would say, "Well, all I need is the Holy Spirit. I need nothing else." Why did God give the church and elders and preachers and teachers then? Why wouldn't he have only given the Holy Spirit? No, he gave preachers and teachers that they might enlighten people with the word of God.
Are the Are the preachers and teachers perfect? Not this one. Tell you that I that man right with the beard, he's a lovely man. He's not perfect. The guy in the orange shirt with a bigger beard, he's not perfect either. But we we aim to teach as much as we understand sound doctrine to teach the word of God faithfully that you might understand its meaning. And we see this also throughout scripture. 1 Timothy chapter 5. Listen to what we read in 1 Timothy 5:17.
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. There is this sense, it's a weird text for me to read. It's feels self- serving. It's not meant to. It just this is the reality of scripture that that God has laid out for us that we need preachers and teachers to to give us the word of the Lord. This past week, Vodie Bakam passed away suddenly. Maybe you don't know that name. For those who do, you know what a profoundly impactful preacher of the word of God he was.
And I don't know if you're like me, but he helped me so much understand certain facets of scripture that I wouldn't have understood in the same way until he unpacked these truths from the word of God. It was helpful. It's how God designed it to be. Hebrews 13:7, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith as we read here. And so in God's immense kindness, he's given to us his word. He's given us the revelation of himself.
He's revealed himself through scripture. And the Holy Spirit is a guide for us to understand him more. And he uses the means of the local church, preachers, teachers, pastors, elders to bring the word of God to you every every week, all the time. And truly, as second Peter chapter 1 tells us, God has given to us through his word everything we need for life and godliness. Now, let me end with this.
One of the famous sayings of our dear brother Charlie Kirk was this, "Ask me anything." He would go around campuses saying, he had big signs that would say, "Ask me anything." And truly people came and asked him anything. If you have watched any of his debates, they asked him all manner of questions. We who know and love the Lord Jesus should be walking around with t-shirts maybe or hats that say, "Ask me anything." Because here's the reality.
When someone comes to the local church to hear the word of the Lord, it's going to be the pastors and teachers that do that. And I and I want you to know from this from this pulpit, from my office, ask me anything. In all sincerity, my door is open. Ask me anything. Anything. I I know that's true for any of the elders here. They would say the same thing. Ask us anything. We will happily come alongside and seek to teach from the word of God to you and help to understand it. But there might be places where you're like, I can't necessarily bring them to the local church. Well, then you become the ambassador. You if you know the word of the Lord, you be that person to go to them and help them understand.
Read the word with them and then try to help them understand its meaning. Maybe it's a co-orker, maybe it's a neighbor, maybe it's a family member, whoever it is, they are right now, right now in this particular season potentially, they're eager to know what the Bible says. They're so curious because of everything that's going on in the world. And they're reading this going, I what is what what does this mean? Let me let me help you understand. You know, 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, "We are that is the believers.
The we is the believers, all Christians, we are ambassadors for Christ." Do you know what an ambassador is? An ambassador is someone who does not have an original message. I as I hate in case in case you thought of me in a certain way, I don't have an original thought in my head. I along with every faithful pastor in the world am just a plagiarist. What do I mean by that? I am just telling you what's already been said. I'm giving you the message.
I am just a gobetween. So is every faithful pastor and elder and every believer should be the same way. You don't have an original thought. What is ecclesi? If you think you're really creative, I don't I'm not saying there is anyone here who thinks that by the way, but for anyone who does think that way, Ecclesiastes tells us there's nothing new under the sun. You don't have no one has an original thought. God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. And we are to be his ambassadors. An ambassador is a messenger.
What the king says to the ambassador, the ambassador then says to the masses. The king has told us the message. I am just now telling people what the king has said. So if 2 Corinthians 5:20 says we are ambassadors of God or actually I think it says ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. That's our mission. Just like here in Nehemiah they read and then there was all these people coming alongside saying okay do you understand that?
Let me help you understand that giving the sense of the meaning. May it be that every Christian that goes from this place is that kind of ambassador that we seek to not only read the word of God with our fellow man, but we try to help them understand what it means. That maybe, just maybe, in God's providence, there might be those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ even this day and turn from death to life. And then and if you and even if that doesn't happen, if we've been faithful to give the word of God, to give the gospel of God, then we bless the Lord even in that.
And so all glory be to Christ our king. Let us thank him for his word. Let's pray together. God, I thank you for your word. It is precious. It is that which enlightens darkened hearts and minds to understand you to understand both our sin but also the salvation that's available in Christ that you would send your only son to pay my penalty.
I am a worm, Lord. I'm a wretch. I'm such a sinner. And yet you have given such extravagant grace and mercy and love in sending your only son to die in my place. Lord, may we all understand these things and be worshippers. As we read the word of God, we see what the Lord has done and we exalt your name. May it be said of us that way. And would you give us courage in a world that hates the message of the gospel?
Give us courage to be your ambassadors that with gentleness and kindness, but also with exquisite clarity, we would hold forth the word of life to those who desperately need it. Lord, may we have such love for our fellow man that we would tell them about Jesus that they might turn from death to life. And God, may you do a a mighty work as we continue in Jesus name. Amen. Let's respond in song together. Should nothing of our effort stand.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
